Even as late ‘40s Neo-Realism evolved toward a new Golden Age of Italian cinema (lasting well into the ‘60s*), old-school commercial crudities still had a place in the market. As per the popular soap-operatic melodramas of Raffaello Matarazzo, many for the well-cushioned pair of Yvonne Sanson & Amedeo Nazzari.* This time, HE’s the absentee scion of corner-cutting marble quarry owner Françoise Rosay; SHE’s the working-class daughter of ‘Pop,’ its fast declining watchman. Nazzari, a champion of workers’ rights, wants to modernize the crumbling site, while his tough old mother cedes control to evil foreman Folco Lulli. But after Nazzari proposes to that low-class gal, Mom gives in, or pretends to, sending her (rather mature) boy off to buy equipment in England, using the separation to break the couple up for good. One problem: Sanson is already pregnant. Yikes! Okay, many problems: ‘Pop’ just keeled over, dead; foreman Lulli overworks the men & steals the lovers’ letters for Rosay; the illegitimate child is born and given up (listed as dead); grieving mom joins a convent; Nazzari marries a proper lady and has an adorable girl; illegitimate kid not dead, but secretly sponsored at a Catholic school he runs away from only to separately bump into both mom and Dad. Whew. Meanwhile, Rosay dies and her will is stolen by the rich wife! That cute little boy saves his step-sister from drowning (neither aware of the relationship) and then attempts to stop Lulli from blowing up the quarry. All this laid out by Matarazzo in a remarkably flat presentation which makes it either better or worse depending on how you take these things.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Tricky to mark the end of this highpoint in Italian cinema, when it seemed everyone knew how to make movies. Just follow the rules in that Italian film grammar everyone carried in their back-pocket. Or had in their head. But it sure was easy to spot once those concepts fell out of favor. To paraphrase an old quote on pornography: You knew it when you didn’t see it.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *As in last year’s TORMENTO/’50. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/04/tormento-1950.html
No comments:
Post a Comment